Agile is a Culture, Not a Methodology

Ashwin is a passionate agile consultant focused on delivering successful projects, and creating high-performing teams and individuals.

  Agile  

I have been asked how I would coach a team on agile. My answer has been pretty standard, and something I have always believed in: Agile is not a methodology, but a culture within an organization.

I have been a practitioner of agile principles and always encourage teams to strongly believe in those principles—and I provide them a path to practice those principles. When I say agile is a culture, I encourage teams to understand and keep their roles and responsibilities aside and focus on achieving a common goal: delivery of the product.

It involves giving up roles and focusing on finishing the tasks on time, or a dev team helping the QA team with testing and understanding the perspective of the requirements. There might be times when dev teams might think a requirement is not very helpful, but it might mean a lot to business—wearing the “business shoes” at times is switching the roles. These competencies are not something that can be enforced in an individual, but provide them the platform. The trust in teams and individuals will eventually result in that culture.

“Culture” is also ideal for the business or product owners. More often than not, I have witnessed companies who say that they have a product owner; however, it’s not their primary job. The PO either works as a representative of the business (working for a few hours each …

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